Vitali Klitschko is the best 40+ year old HW ever.

So they couldn't claim he was the best 20 or 30 year old heavyweight ever,so we'll claim him as the best 40 year old ever.
Well,that's some achievment.

 

Greatness speaks for itself, Vitali Klitscko fans try so damn hard to make a case for him though.

 

I like Vitali. He was tough, unflappable and was not afraid to mix it up.

But some people do go a bit overboard on his legacy. He had a great comeback for a guy his age but even that combined with his earlier work doesn't add up where some are ranking him.

 

His resume is very poor in my opinion, especially compared to Wlads.

Neither has any 'great' wins, but Wlad has very good wins over Povetkin, Byrd, Chagev, Ibragimov and Haye, outside of the Wlad fight, these guys are/were accomplished fighters in their own right.

In terms of accomplishment the only guy on Vitalis resume that stands out is Adamek. You could throw in Peter too but Wlad beat him too. Sanders achieved nothing other than beat Wlad.

Both missed out the other 'dominant' heavyweight of the time in Valuev, i know he was nothing special but outside of the Klits, i think he held the title for quite some time.

Wlads record is very good and he always was the natural successor to Lewis.

 

The case is an easy one. Vitali is very big an athletic heavyweight who was both a amateur and world champ at boxing and kickboxing.

- Vital owns one of the highest KO% in the history of the division.

- He was never floored by a punch in 47 fights

- He came back at age 37, away from the game for 5 years and won back his title, then cleaned out a few other top ten heavies.

- He has the highest percentage of rounds won to rounds lost in the history of the sport, never losing more than three consensus rounds on any card.


Quick summary to put things in perspective

His KO % is higher than Foreman, Louis or Liston

His chin rates as one of the best ever, only Oliver McCall can claim he was never floored

He is one of the best older fighters in division history. Comparable to Holmes and Foreman. Like Ali Vitali lost some of his prime years to injury.

He ability to box and win rounds is even better than Ali and Holmes, who in truth lost a lot of rounds too lesser competition.

If you watch the films, he’s got great stamina, a high punch out put, is a master of distance, and it hard to hit cleanly.

He should rate in anyone top 15 head to head, and in terms of a legacy, he has more title defenses and quite a few records as I chronicled above.

 

And speaking of heavies over 40, I think Wlad can be in the conversation soon. At age 38, he looked very good vs Pulev, showing no loss of hand speed, or mobility.

 

Wlad has a very dangerous and important year coming up.

Next year he'll be faceing the Stiverne/Wilder winner and Fury in the summer.

After that he should retire, he has nothing to prove, unless he wants to wait for Joshua

 

He said on more than one occasion that he wants to fight for as long as he possibly can, though who knows if he'll maintain that position.

 

I know he's said that, he certainly is physically capable of it, but outside of Fury/Stiverne/Wilder, there is nobody out there that can challenge him.

Depending on how quickly Joshua comes along.

 

There hasn't been anyone worthy of challenging him for the past 8-9 years, which is all the more reason for him to stick around collecting easy paychecks. As for Anthony Joshua, I've never seen him fight. He's obviously had a great amateur career and has put together a nice pro record in a short time. Until he's tested however, he remains a question mark. A man like Kevin Johnson can certainly find out if he's capable of going rounds or not.

 

Joshua offensively seems the goods, but i get the feeling he might be packing some glass. Until hes taken to the trenches hes still going to have some question marks.

Haye and Povetkin on paper seemed good challenges for Wlad and he beat them easily. I guess he can hang around for the easy paychecks, but one day he will get old, maybe overnight.

Laugh, but i believe Fury has got a good chance to dethrone Wlad.

 

If he can land some bombs square on the chin, then he's got a chance. But that's been much easier said than done over the past 10 years. The only fight I ever saw Fury in was against Steve Cunningham, and after I saw USS put him on the canvas, I pretty much wrote him off as a threat to Klitschko.

 

.... in about 6 or 7 years time, maybe.

 

Thats the fight where he got knocked down, combed his hair and got back up! :good

Hes improved a bit since then, one thing about Fury is, he clowns around a lot.

Fury has comparable size to Wlad, and he has got some decent boxing skills, albeit a bit clumsy.

It wont be easy for Wlad, it wont be one of his usual clinchfests

 

Nah too late, hell probably be a grandfather by then!

Come summer, we might have a new heavyweight champ.

Boxing is going back to its roots :yep